PATRICIA ERMECHEO

OSOM BRAND

Patricia Ermecheo has been making a living selling waste. And now she’s convincing bigger brands to adopt her upcycled approach. Founder of Osom Socks and Osomtex, Ermecheo sells socks made from waste fabrics -- donated clothing, deadstock, basically any type of unwanted clothing.The idea stems from an earlier business, Novafiber, which she began five years ago, shipping cartons of used clothing to South America to sell at affordable rates. OSOM BRAND™ is a sustainable brand that embraces the idea that we are all one. All products are made entirely of high quality upcycled thread from discarded garments, saving thousands of tons of textile waste from going to landfill. No Water or Dyes are used to make products.

With a $23,000 Kickstarter campaign, Ermecheo launched Osom Brand in January 2016 manufacturing the socks in solar-powered, fair trade factories in Guatemala.She’s sold and shipped nearly 2,000 pairs of socks around the world.She projects that sales will double by the end of this year.

she moved her operations from Miami, Florida to Bend, Oregon, where she’s bought a tiny house with her partner.It will become not only her home but also Osom Brand HQ.Given that she’s in talks with a sports brand in Oregon about using her fabrics for their lineup of products, Ermecheo says that Oregon was a good fit -- work-wise and lifestyle-wise.

Situated in a rural location in Bend, Oregon, she’ll be running day-to-day operations for Osomtex from this solar-powered office.“I wanted all aspects of the business to show a commitment to sustainability, and it just made sense to downsize our footprint as a company as well,” she says, weeks before the move.